


First Meeting

by Phoenixflames12



Series: An Endless Night: Extended Scenes [2]
Category: Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Alternate Universe - World War II, Gen, Gotham's Writing Workshop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 16:52:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13594326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenixflames12/pseuds/Phoenixflames12
Summary: January, 1927Claire, a first year nurse at the RMA Sandhurst, meets James Fraser, a cadet in his second term, for the first time





	First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion piece to my longer WW2 AU stories 'An Endless Night' and 'Vergagenheit.'

January 1927

ATR Winchester

 

‘Nurse Beauchamp!’

 

The call comes when she’s just sitting down in the VAD’s common room with a much- needed mug of cocoa at what should have been the end of a ten-hour shift.

 

‘Best go, Claire. You don’t want to keep the top brass waiting’, Jenny Paynton, a sweet girl from Jersey who’d come up on the train with Claire on their first day of training, nods to the common room door, where the rumble of agitated voices was just audible.

 

Claire grimaces at the thought but has to admit to herself that the knot in her stomach isn’t due to the thought of being reprimanded by the MO, but for the cadets, most of them who were returning from their Christmas leave, driving far too fast on the winding country lanes that led up to the training camp.

 

‘Yes, Sir?’ The brisk walk from the common room, heart hammering, trying not to think of the worst, had taken an eternity.

 

‘There’s a new case just come in. A second-term cadet came off his motorbike early this morning. Went too fast round Hare Park corner and skidded on the ice; the foolish bugger. A passer-by picked him up and brought him in. I need you to go and help.’

 

The monologue is swiftly dispassionate and Claire finds that she can do nothing but nod as she is sent on her way, her mouth feeling as if she’s swallowed a wad of sandpaper.

There is no point in asking questions.

 

Not now.

 

* * *

 

Time passes by in a blur.

 

He’s tall and thin, with a shocking mane of auburn curls plastered to his forehead by a sheen of sweat.

 

He watches her warily as she approaches the bed, armed with her forceps and a kidney bowl. His eyes are very deep and very blue, slanted cat-like against the lines of muck and grime that coat his face.

 

His lips are white, his left hand gripping the side of the bed with a strength that pulses through his knuckles like iron.

 

The Sister that greets her is splintering the third and fourth fingers of his right hand, carefully wrapping the broken digits with a guaze that stings of disinfectant.

 

Glancing at his chart as she sets down the bowl and forceps, she realises that he’s only twenty-three, a second-term, officer cadet originally from up in the far-north of Scotland, a place that she’s never heard of.

 

_So young!_

 

‘Lallybroch’, the name slips around her tongue as she tries it.

 

‘Aye, Nurse,’ he murmurs, stirring; the words soft in a hiss of pain, his gaze distant, as if he is not looking at her at all, but rather gazing upon that unknown place in the far -off Highlands.

 

‘’Tis… ‘tis a beautiful place…’

 

Sensing his distraction, Claire begins to work. The asphalt is sharp and jagged, irregular shapes that slip through the forceps’ jaws until she has a firm grip on the protruding ends.

 

‘I’ll leave you to it Nurse,’ the Sister murmurs, setting down the injured hand, her gaze suddenly gimlet like as she eyes the patient, lips pursed.

 

‘And don’t even think about moving that hand. Nurse Beauchamp will tell me if you do. It needs to heal.’

 

Claire nods for both of them but doesn’t miss the conspiratorial wink that he gives her as soon as the Sister’s back is turned.

 

‘We’ll have these out in a jiff, cadet. How did it happen?’

 

Her hands are trembling slightly as she grips the largest of the asphalt pieces with the forceps. It is large and triangular and she has to pause for a second to compose herself before pulling it clear.

 

‘ _Dhia!’_

 

The escaped word ricochets around the space, repeating itself several times against the echoing walls.

 

She holds her breath, the forceps trembling around the bloody metal fragment.

 

_One._

_Two._

_Three._

No one comes.

 

She breathes again, slowly placing the forceps down against the kidney bowl, waiting for the blood roaring through her ears to slow and moves to the head of the bed, one hand resting on the brass knocker.

 

There is a small stool and a bowl of lukewarm water and a flannel that is beginning to ooze tendrils of dark, muck stained blood.

 

He blinks at her footsteps, eyes dark with pain, the lines of his face still clinging to the soft lines of boyhood.

 

She knows that she ought to change the water, but her heart twists at the sight of those agonised eyes and she finds that she can’t leave him.

 

Instead, she slowly reaches out to take his good hand, the fingers large and firm under hers, his pulse beating strongly beneath her own, her heart suddenly moved to tenderness for this young man so very far away from home.

 

‘What’s your name, cadet?’

 

He pauses and she squeezes his hand in a gesture that she hopes speaks of reassurance.

 

‘Jamie,’ he swallows thickly before continuing, grimacing as a ripple of pain courses through his maimed hand.

 

‘James, really. James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser.’

 

She cannot help but feel a smile quirk against her lips, but she pitches her voice low, knowing that what she will say next is breaking all of the rules that have been drummed into her about nurses not giving patients their Christian names.

 

‘It’s good to meet you, Jamie. I’m Claire.’

 

The smile that he gives her is slow and careful, breaking free across his mouth, igniting a spark in the endless depths of blue that she hadn’t seen earlier.

 

If there was a rule that she could break to give him comfort, she is glad that it is that one.

 

* * *

_**Fin** _

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to read and review! Comments, suggestions, constructive criticisms etc are like chocolate to my brain!
> 
> Much love and enjoy x


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